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CANADA OPENS 2009-10 SEASON WITH WIN OVER SWEDEN
CALGARY, Alta. – Hayley Wickenheiser may have been the centre of pre-game attention on Saturday night, but
it was the rest of her National Women’s Team teammates that took over once the puck dropped.
On the night Wickenheiser (Shaunavon, Sask.) was honoured for playing in her 200th international game,
Canada got multiple-point efforts from seven players as it opened the 2009-10 season and kicked off the road
to Vancouver with a 7-2 win over Sweden.
Jayna Hefford (Kingston, Ont.) scored twice and added an assist to pace the Canadian offence, which
outshot the Swedes 44-11 overall.
It was the youthful line of 21-year-old Haley Irwin (Thunder Bay, Ont.), 24-year-old Sarah Vaillancourt
(Sherbrooke, Que.) and 20-year-old Jennifer Wakefield (Pickering, Ont.) that led the way in the first period,
combining for five points in the opening frame.
Goals from Irwin and Vaillancourt sandwiched around Hefford’s first of the game as Canada took a 3-0 lead
to the dressing room after 20 minutes.
It was more of the same in the second, as Brianne Jenner (Oakville, Ont.) scored her first international
goal in her first international game, swatting a loose puck past Swedish goaltender Sara Grahn, and Hefford
added her second to make it 5-0 just 5:06 into the period.
Elin Holmlöv got the Swedes on the board with a power play goal just past the midway mark of the middle
frame, but Jennifer Botterill (Winnipeg, Man.) restored Canada’s five-goal lead before the end of the
period.
Emma Eliasson and Colleen Sostorics (Kennedy, Sask.) traded goals in the third period to round out the
scoring.
Shannon Szabados (Edmonton, Alta.) went the distance in goal for Canada, making nine saves for the
win.
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